The Human in the Helper: You cannot heal what you don’t reveal

Dr. Kendal Wellington Humes is a trailblazer. As a doctorate-level psychotherapist in private practice, he’s recently taken on the task of building a behavioral health program from the ground up in academia, as it’s first department chair. He’s had a busy few years, however they haven’t been without challenges. “I’m winning and I’m losing irreplaceable things.” In the past 8 years in Colorado, Dr. Kendal has experienced the loss of a parent, godparent, pet loss, and two painful divorces. “My private practice has kept me alive,” he shared.

“People see my progress but not my process,” Dr. Kendal reflected. He’s no stranger to wanting to excel since he’s achieved four degrees and multiple letters after his name before his mid-thirties. Educational and career achievements provided him a sense of purpose and control when his personal life felt rocky. “No one can take that from me,” he reflected.

Dr. Kendal named the pressure he feels to succeed. “I can’t afford to be mediocre. I’m Black. I’m an immigrant. I’m tall. I’m dark-skinned. And I’m openly gay. I don’t have the privilege of being mediocre.” He’s achieved quite a bit in his career so far, working in community mental health, offering supervision, starting a private practice, and now working in academia. He spoke of the bittersweetness of achieving success while grieving. “People are celebrating the successes but not the losses. Transparency can be weaponized.” Dr. Kendal also spoke to the pressure mental health professionals feel to have things all figured out. “We get the message that we should know better. We should be better.” As a mentor to younger generations of therapists and professionals, It hasn’t stopped him from sharing the hardships as well as the victories.

“I’ve been through divorce. My father died.” Dr. Kendal has experienced depression and he’s felt immense grief. “I didn’t feel like I could give people an honest answer about how I was doing. People don’t always understand what sacrifices have to be made for the successes they see.” Dr. Kendal also recognizes he’s hardest on himself. When experiencing divorce, he found himself saying, “I can’t even heal my own person. I can’t heal my own shit.”

Now Dr. Kendal is all about seeing both sides. “I can see the good and the bad. You cannot heal what you don’t reveal.” He describes his approach as strengths-based and holds onto some humor, even when things get heavy. “I have a strong sense of self. I had to forgive myself.” Dr. Kendal has similar ideas for others going through immense pain in their personal life. “Keep moving. Fall on your back instead of your face. When you fall on your back, you can still see what direction you need to go.”

As for himself, Dr. Kendal’s purpose has become clearer thanks to added perspective and deeper insight from the losses he’s experienced. “Sometimes letting go will put you right where you need to be. Stop fighting.” He’s attempting to take the changes in stride, knowing he has more people to meet and engage in his journey as a psychotherapist. “I’m a wounded healer,” he named. “Failures can be a win too. How will failures help us grow?”

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

The Human in the Helper: My plans went so sideways

Christie is a mom, published author, therapist, and creator of The Partnerhood, a digital community for supportive parenting strategies and connection. It’s creation is partly inspired by her own journey into motherhood of two children. “Both times rocked my world in different ways,” Christie named. The first time was marked not only by a traumatic birth experience, but also by undiagnosed postpartum anxiety and having no network of local support outside of one friend and her husband. She spoke of the experience of becoming a mother in isolation and with limited support, something many mothers can understand from their own, similar experiences. In addition to a traumatic birth experience with her first child, Christie identified that starting her private practice while pregnant wasn’t an easy task. “I wouldn’t recommend it,” she teased. “It was like having two babies at once.”

Her second child was born in November 2019, with COVID following close behind. “I felt like I started off with a strong plan. I had recently gained more friendships with other moms, was in a good place mentally, my business was flourishing, but after only a few weeks into getting my daughter into daycare, everything shut down. I felt so isolated. It threw me into a deep depression.” Christie shared how the pandemic took away her already limited support network and left her home by herself with her two young kids. “My husband was able to leave the house every day for work, almost like normal. Meanwhile, I was thrown into homeschooling a kindergartener, seeing clients virtually, and caring for my baby.” Her depression symptoms deepened to the point where she was experiencing suicidal thoughts and wanted to give up. “I started looking for a therapist, but had little luck.”

Christie identified how difficult it was to find a therapist at that time because it was the height of COVID-19 in 2020, when many folks were looking for support. “I even called the crisis line, knowing I needed to talk to somebody.” She was finally able to start working with someone, although it was a process to feel more like herself again. “I was resentful. I was ragey with my kids. I had to ask myself, what do I need?”

Working on her needs post-pandemic included prioritizing external supports and including regular meetups with friends, quiet time to herself, therapy, and activities like yoga, hiking, and reading. Many parents can relate to the effort of taking care of themselves as well as their families, and learning how to juggle it well. “I don’t like the word ‘balance’ because it still symbolizes piling things on to get it all done. You can technically ‘balance’ a really heavy load, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy. I prefer ‘work-life harmony’ instead,” Christie shared.

What is work-life harmony? Christie describes it as taking care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our businesses with a grounded satisfaction that leads to feelings of happiness and fulfillment. Having solid supports and self-care are part of this equation for Christie, who said, “Parenting is hard. Having a solid foundation of support makes a huge difference.”  She hopes others will cultivate supports as part of their own mental health and wellness journey, and she has plans to re-launch The Partnerhood as another avenue of support and connection for other overwhelmed parents. “Loneliness is magnified without support and quality support eliminates isolation.”

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

The Human in the Helper: I felt like my life had been thrown in a blender

Michelle is known in her community for helping colleagues become CE providers because she believes in what they have to share, she recognizes the freedom course creation brings, and she wants colleagues to have additional income streams. She is also known for her fun glasses and for being a breast cancer survivor. “I was diagnosed in January 2020.” Michelle describes a moment in her life that was sheer terror as she waited for official results. She recalls the experience as being told there was something abnormal and that they were pretty sure what it was, but required two weeks to formally confirm. “I would rather go back to chemo than relive those two weeks of hell.”

Michelle wasn’t sleeping. She felt dissociated. Her heart rate stayed high, even when trying to sleep. Her daughter kept waking up in the middle of the night worried and finding reasons to engage her mom to make sure she was okay. Michelle struggled with what to tell her clients. “I feel bad for the clients in that waiting period, I showed up the best I could.” It’s understandable that Michelle had a hard time being present as she waited for the game plan for fighting her cancer, which ended up being a very aggressive type of breast cancer with the worst prognosis. “I notified my clients about needing two weeks off to address my medical care.”

Once she had her plan, which included chemo, surgery, and radiation, Michelle focused on referring out her newest clients and her acute clients to other providers. “It was hard to make those calls while also trying to take care of myself.” Michelle kept clients she’d had longer on her caseload, who also had more rapport for this next season of her life. Then she experienced the pandemic shutdown. “It was sort of a blessing to move to working from home. I had lost my hair, I was wearing a wig.” She moved everyone to online and tried to keep up with her medical appointments.

Another challenge Michelle faced was maintaining boundaries around her cancer treatment with clients who were worried. “I let them know there was going to be a boundary and set the timer for five minutes. They could ask me anything they wanted regarding my cancer and treatment, but once the timer was up, it was back to being focused on them.” Michelle reports this worked well for clients. Some only wanted to know that she was okay, while others had more detailed questions to ask. She navigated this dynamic with her clients through ten months of treatment.

Michelle is in good health now, and has had time to reflect on her process. “I wish there was more support in our community for things like this.” She described wanting a way to notify a trusted colleague when awful things happen, someone who could make the calls and outreach the clients when their therapist has to pause or regroup. Michelle felt this need again when she got the call at the end of a client session that her father had died. “How do we let people know when life things happen? We worry about client abandonment. We worry about liability.” Until a tool that supports this communication is created, Michelle has some other ideas for colleagues. “Be gentle with colleagues online. We don’t know the whole story as to why they didn’t show up, why they didn’t call back. They could be going through something.” She hopes that mental health professionals can support connection and community with one another, two things that feel so important when coming back from crises that happen in our lives. We couldn’t agree more.

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

The Human in the Helper: I was a shell of a person

Laura is known as a leader in the mental health community. With her passion, wisdom, and integrity, she is showing colleagues ways to level up their practices. Yet her own practice had to take a pause when she found herself struggling with significant anxiety and OCD behaviors postpartum. “I anticipated that postpartum would be awful, and I was right,” she shared. Laura was struggling with sleep, and wouldn’t get the sleep she needed after nursing her daughter at night. “I went into my support group and asked them if they were sleeping and they all said they slept like logs. That’s when I knew something was wrong.” She described insomnia that would keep her awake and when she’d finally feel tired, it was time for her daughter to nurse again. “My husband would leave the house for work and I’d cry, knowing I was left home alone with my baby, I was so tired.”

Laura noticed that her insomnia contributed to her anxiety as she worried about the insomnia itself and not getting enough sleep each night. Then she noticed some OCD behaviors showing up in her life. “I think I was looking to feel in control of something,” she reflected. Laura found herself using an app to track all of her infant daughter’s activities, which isn’t uncommon. What felt disruptive was that she was methodical about logging every activity and exact times for all the activities, which she recalls felt obsessive and made her anxiety worse. “I focused on every minute and every activity. I was in the app all the time. “ She didn’t know how much of a hold it had on her until someone said to delete it. “It was when my daughter was 18 months old that a friend suggested I delete the app in not needing it anymore, and after some hesitation I did.”

Although Laura was able to break away from the app and the behaviors associated with it in her postpartum recovery, she shared that it took her longer to recover from the sleep deficit of motherhood and insomnia. “It was probably a solid four years before my sleep was back on track.” The thing that helped her most was getting trained in CBTI, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, which she used on herself as well as with her clients.

Laura is honest with herself that her postpartum journey was challenging and that her experience isn’t everyone’s experience in becoming new parents. She does have some advice for therapists who are planning for maternity or paternity leave, however. “Save for your leave.” Laura identified that she was fortunate to have saved enough for several months of maternity leave, which allowed her to be more honest with herself on her timeline of coming back to work. “If I’d come back at 12 weeks, I wouldn’t have been a very good therapist. I was a shell of a person.” Through her saving and thanks to a supportive spouse, Laura was able to extend her maternity leave to allow herself more time to adjust, before slowly easing back into private practice two days a week to start. “Set aside money for your leave, you don’t know what your postpartum will look like.”

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

The Human in the Helper: I found out on Facebook

Cathy has a disarming, warm personality that shows up well on video and in person. When she’s not writing her next book or offering workshops, she’s enjoying her dogs or recording new content for her online classes. Cathy isn’t afraid to talk about things that feel heavy, like being scammed or death and dying. It’s one of the many things that makes her the ideal person to talk to therapists about professional wills. She also has the lived experience of losing two colleagues suddenly. “Grant and I worked together on projects and I asked him to be the executor of my professional will,” Cathy shared. Grant said yes, and asked Cathy to be his executor as well. But then Grant didn’t get around to writing a will before he died suddenly. “Amidst my grief, I had to find a way to get his files.” Cathy went on to describe how she learned of his sudden death. “I found out on Facebook. It was sad and difficult.”

Cathy shares how she had to compartmentalize her grief in order to take care of things for Grant. “I had to figure out how to reach his family. I had to find his calendar to notify his clients.” Cathy describes a frantic search for Grant’s files, which were in three different places. She worried about clients showing up to sessions and wondering where he was. She worried that clients would find out about his death through social media too, adding a traumatic layer to their loss. “Every phone call was hard,” Cathy named. She held space for Grant’s clients in their grief and helped them connect with new providers, which felt like a process for both her and them.

That wasn’t the end of Cathy’s grief. Two years later, a second colleague died suddenly. It was another tragic example of someone who didn’t have a professional will in place. Although Cathy wasn’t the executor for this colleague, she had some realizations from her experiences of loss. “I knew my professional will wasn’t going to cut it.” She also realized that more colleagues needed to understand the importance of a professional will, for themselves, their clients, and their families. “I needed to take some action,” Cathy shared.

Cathy began gathering materials for a more in-depth professional will template, in honor of her experiences with Grant and her second colleague who had died. She started offering workshops to help therapists craft their professional will, and noticed how her experiences with colleague loss had changed her profoundly. “I noticed that I didn’t shy away from saying death or dying.” C

Cathy saw firsthand how crafting a professional will triggered her colleagues. It caused a fear of death to surface, and it asked people to look at their own mortality. “It showed up in every single workshop,” Cathy named. She describes how some colleagues needed to take a break, while others wanted to pause and come back to writing their will at a later time. Cathy recognizes this is a difficult but necessary process for many.

“Just get something written down,” she says. “Anything helps. Talk to a colleague, or tell someone where you keep your key.” Cathy shares how the more someone can plan and get into the details, the more it helps others. She also suggests exploring the wording of what you want your executor to say about your death. Are details important? Is there wording that feels least harmful to the clients left behind? Professional wills represent more than just details of where to find your files or client information. “It’s something to guide a colleague,” Cathy says, “it shows care for your clients, it shows care for the person doing this process for you, and it shows care for your family members who are in grief.”

You don’t have to do this by yourself. Access Cathy’s online course for writing your professional will HERE.

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

The Human in the Helper: My clients didn't know

Sharon loves using humor in her therapeutic work, which serves her well considering she works with a variety of clients including children to older adults. It’s also helped her navigate almost four years of medical challenges. “I had three medical issues in a row!” Sharon shared. She reflected on needing serious medical care that felt disruptive to her work-life balance for several years. “It was hard. Sometimes it was great to be with clients because I needed to think of things other than the pain.”

Even as Sharon was attempting to navigate her pain, most of her clients didn’t know she was going through so much. “Clients would be shocked to know what I went through. They had no idea. I had to think about if it would hurt or help clients to know,” she said. This was possible due to her offering telehealth sessions where clients couldn’t see the medical changes or recovery equipment in her life at that time. Sharon went on to describe how she didn’t want to reinforce attachment traumas for certain clients or cause them to worry about her, resulting in clients attempting to caregive her rather than focusing on their own stuff in therapy. “We have to be curious about if honesty is helpful, or if it just makes it about us, “ Sharon warns.  It helps us reflect on the purpose of self-disclosure when things are happening in our personal lives, exploring the impact on our client work from multiple viewpoints.

Sharon isn’t saying that clients come first, however. When it comes to medical care and health and wellness needs, she recommends therapists treat themselves likes CEOs. “Be the CEO of your business where your needs come first, then your client care.” She named how making her health a priority actually helped her get better, and allowed her to serve her clients better when feeling well again.

An important part of Sharon’s recovery in needing medical care was her own support system. She reflects on how embracing vulnerability and sharing her struggles with colleagues helped her reduce her caseload with thoughtful referrals when she was feeling tapped out. She named gratitude for a spouse who encouraged her to do what needed to be done in order to get better.  “There’s a strength in saying there’s no way I can get through this on my own.”

Sharon is celebrating that she’s in a better spot with her health today, and recognizes that the lived experience of multiple medical concerns has made her a better clinician in some ways. “Having to sit in the question of ‘is this it?’ myself allows me to sit in this heaviness with clients.” Whether it’s aging, end of life, or the loss of a loved one, she feels prepared to slow down with clients and feel the big emotions that come with mortality and loss. She continues to hold passion for her client work and gratitude for her experiences, and names a willingness to keep her health a first priority amidst her calling as a clinician. “As long as I can take a break from any surgeries or medical crises in 2024,” Sharon grinned.

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

The Human in the Helper: I was going to be resentful and hateful of the field

Alex loves traveling, his husband, and his fur babies. He’s known within his community as a committed mental health leader, dedicated group practice owner, and compelling TEDx speaker. Most importantly, he embodies a genuineness and passionate energy you don’t often see when working within hardened systems that focus on significant trauma and addiction. Seeing how much he’s accomplished in the past few years, it may surprise you to know he was starting to lose his passion and soulful work to the burden of busyness. “It was consuming me,” Alex shared.

Alex describes an imbalance where work was the top priority. He was fielding calls, putting out metaphorical fires, and always having to check his phone for issues, even while on vacation. “I didn’t look forward to coming home [from vacation]. I was stressed at the thought of coming home.” Alex knew something had to shift, but he felt he was committed to his group practice’s growth and goals for the next few years. His spouse described the agency as Alex’s baby, taking his full attention and energy since it was still in an infancy stage of growth.

“That hurt to hear him say,” Alex said, “but it didn’t cause a pivot.” At least, not yet. Alex had been considering a career adjustment for almost two years before he hit his limit. “I was in Oregon on a ropes course and had dislocated my shoulder,” Alex remembers. He recalled how he noticed he was attempting to talk himself into pushing through and finishing, all while in immense pain. “I asked myself, who do I need to prove myself to? Tapping out is okay.” Then Alex felt a flood of emotions as he realized this urge to keep going and pushing through was part of his experience as a group practice owner. He had finally come to a decision, it was time.

Although his community saw the end result as an announcement to close his agency, Alex disclosed several factors that influenced this pivot away from group practice ownership. “I want my husband to be my top priority. I want to do soulful work again. If I didn’t pivot, I was going to be resentful and hateful of the field.” Alex reflected on how his five domains of self—something he presents on often within his community—were suffering under the experience of too much busyness. “Now I’m paying attention to what feels in alignment with my values.”

Alex shared that although he’s grieving the change, it’s a joyful process to see the meaningful differences in his day to day life. “I get to work and do something I love and spend time with my husband.” Alex doesn’t want to live with regrets, especially as he helps his spouse navigate a recent decline in health. “I’m not going to compromise who I am as myself or for my husband for the profession.” In other words, Alex is embracing a shift towards prioritizing relationships and health over work.

A pivot in practice ownership is something Alex wants to normalize for his colleagues. “You don’t owe anyone any explanations. You don’t owe it to anyone but yourself.” Alex went on to describe that pivoting is a normal experience as priorities in life change. How do you know if you need to pivot? Alex has a suggestion. “Imagine you are on your death bed. Will you be happy with how things are now? Or will you have regrets? You can pivot!” Alex doesn’t want to feel like he has ignore warning bells when things are out of alignment, and he doesn’t want other clinicians to respond this way either. “Notice what you are saying to yourself. To tap out is okay.” In support of balance, Alex plans to continue to speak and consult on burnout and soulful work with other helping professionals. It’s a way he can give back to the profession without burning out, which is something he hopes to inspire in colleagues on their own path of self-discovery as well.

Things happen to us as humans, even as we support our clients as professional helpers. Do you have a story you want to share the mental health community? Email us at croswaitecounselingpllc@gmail.com to learn more about the Human in the Helper Series!

Seven Steps to Changing Your Business Name as a Therapist

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

It can feel like a stressful process to change your business name, much like it can feel overwhelming to change your last name. What steps do you need to take? What order should you take them? What are you forgetting? Since I’ve experienced both a business name change and last name change, I wanted to share some steps to make the business name change that much easier for everyone else to navigate as private practice therapists and small business owners.

Step 1: File a request to change your business name with the IRS. You will get an updated EIN letter reflecting the same EIN and new business name, which will be used to submit changes to other organizations electronically.

Step 2: Change your business name with your business filing in your state. Here in Colorado, it’s the Secretary of State where you can login and request an update, found in the same portal as your annual business filing requests.

Step 3: Complete forms and/or notify insurance panels of the name change. This could take weeks to months to update, which if they are writing you checks, could become a problem if not tackled just so. Don’t forget to update your CAQH profile at the same time since insurances will cross check that!

Step 4: Update your EHR to reflect the name change in your consent forms, your disclosure, your scheduling tool, and your practice information. Notify your clients of the name change in writing so they don’t get confused.

Step 5: Update your bank information to reflect the new business name. Oftentimes this requires an in-person meeting with a banker at your bank to provide the documentation required to make the change. When you schedule your appointment, confirm what you need to bring to make the meeting as efficient and painless as possible.

Step 6: Notify your professionals of the name change, including your biller (if you have one), your accountant, your financial advisor, your tax person, your practice lawyer etc. Notify your malpractice insurance so they can re-issue your insurance for the updated practice name.

Step 7: Update your marketing materials. This includes:

-Your website

-Your logo

-Your social media accounts

-Your Facebook business page

Now you are ready to announce the change to your community! Even though there is excitement in the change, it can also feel daunting, especially knowing that not all of these steps will go smoothly. Give yourself some grace and a significant runway to implement all the changes before announcing it officially. It can feel like a long process to get everyone up to speed on the new name, however once it’s done, the excitement of pivoting will return, allowing you to look forward to the next meaningful chapter in your business!

Exploring Secondary Income versus Passive Income in Private Practice

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Many mental health professionals are exploring additional income streams. Whether it comes from a place of wanting more freedom, supporting burnout prevention, or a desire to have greater flexibility than seeing 20-25 client per week, diversifying income is an important consideration in a successful, balanced private practice.

So let’s talk about passive income versus secondary income. Passive income is something that once launched, makes you money without much effort. Things like:

Book sales

Digital downloads

Online courses

Digital workbooks

An App

Secondary income is a bigger bucket of possibilities, but they also take time to build, effort to maintain, and require time allotted to produce regularly, meaning a more significant shift in your client schedule to avoid feeling overextended. Things like:

Professional training and workshops

Professional speaking

Podcasting

Radio show

Online merchandise or swag*

Retreats

Hosting conferences

Group practice

Video series

Group therapy

Intensives

Supervision

Consultation

Online memberships*

Teaching/Being a Professor

*Depending on how they are built, these could become more passive

Why should we talk about both passive and secondary income streams? As someone with 16 current income streams, the differences and options within private practice matter! For colleagues who connect with me in consultation on this piece, they want to work less so they are seeking passive income streams. Which is great, I’m all about it! And perhaps they are surprised to hear that it can take 4-5 years to see the passive income really flowing well, where additional effort or time isn’t required to maintain them. So then we start to look at secondary income streams together to make a faster, satisfying shift in their money story, with momentum towards a passive income stream in the near future. The ability to bring in additional income is an important skill in business, and thus a skill to master in private practice as well.

Want to know one question (of many) that I ask colleagues in these types of consults?

What’s one pain point for your clients that you already address?

Pain point being defined as an area of hardship, difficulty, or discomfort. Seeking a solution. Is the thing you do (exercise, skill, tool, technique) replicable and scalable to a larger platform for increased reach and income? Let’s talk about it in a consultation!

Both passive and secondary income have a place in the equation of private practice success. Honestly, my favorite type of consultation these days is helping colleagues identify their interests and passions and turn them into possibilities that generate new income. What’s holding you back from dreaming about these possibilities? Maybe you have ideas but aren’t sure how to implement them. With so many colleagues creating amazing things, you are closer than ever to finding your additional income stream(s). Reach out to one of us that speaks to what you are dreaming about. Before you know it, you’ll be one of the professionals showing others that diversified income is possible and maybe even necessary to avoid burnout in our field.

Three Things to Consider When Creating a Course for Others

Photo by Sam McGhee on Unsplash

As mental health professionals, it’s not uncommon to be asked to create a course for others based on your specialties, interests, or populations you serve. It could be a health company wanting a training on suicide assessment, or an HR firm looking for a workshop on burnout prevention. It may be a school wanting strategies for addressing self-harm in teens, or a church community looking for grief and loss resources from a professional within their community. Or perhaps you’ve been outreached by a continued education company that is looking for fresh faces to create quality trainings they can add to their subscription library for current members. Regardless of the audience, here are a couple things to explore before embarking on the journey of creating courses for others.

1.     Have a Contract

Any company or organization serious about working with you to provide a course should have a formal contract outlining the parameters. It’s not enough to have a verbal or email exchange, it’s about having something in writing that gives expectations on things like:

a.     Length of the final training

b.     Deadline for training materials

c.     Format of training being webinar, modules, video, audio, etc.

d.     CE components like learning objectives, references, and quiz questions if required

e.     Intellectual property clarification including that they aren’t hindering you from making similar content for others if you desire to do so

2.     Know the Numbers

In addition to a contract outlining various expectations of you as the creator, it should also house some very important numbers for you to consider before saying yes to the project.

a.     Proposed payment for the completed training (lump sum vs. hourly)

b.     Royalties for the completed training if applicable (percentage earned on the course purchase price)

c.     Affiliate link if applicable and percentage earned off each sale

d.     Timeframe (in months, quarters, or years) for royalties to be earned, and how often they are paid out

3.     Check Boundaries on Your Time

Based on the contract and numbers above, the next step is to compare the creation opportunity to the value of your time. Although most organizations are going to offer a lump sum for course creation over your hourly rate, how do the numbers break down? For example, if they are asking for a 2 hour course for $300, how does that compare to your private pay rate? Does that factor in additional hours of preparation, recording, formatting, and editing content if applicable? Just because the finished product is two hours doesn’t mean it’s going to take you two hours to create it, so sitting in that possibility is important before agreeing to start the course.

So now that you’ve explored the details of your course collaboration, are you ready to sign the contract? Are you feeling overwhelmed or like the timing is off? It’s important to be honest with yourself on all aspects of this endeavor. If you find yourself interested in the project but are not feeling quite confident, maybe there is something that needs to be ironed out before you can give an enthusiastic ‘yes!’ If the company has a restricted budget where they can’t increase your payment, try to negotiate. Here are some ideas of what to ask for:

A.    A longer payout for royalties, such as 3-5 years instead of 2 years

B.    A copy of the recording(s) to use in your own practice or consultation business

C.     Your contact information listed on their site(s) with a backlink to your website to increase your SEO

D.    A copy of their logo to use in your own marketing as a course creator

Each of these suggestions can increase the value of course creation to a busy professional. The process of creating something that expands reach to more people can be exhilarating and rewarding, not to mention it adds credibility to your professional brand. It can also serve as a lead magnet where folks may want to continue to work with you in some capacity, so I hope you’ll take this opportunity to explore course creation as a secondary income stream in your growing private practice!